I'd like to hear your opinions about annotations. It has been my experience that annotated copies of, say, the Bible, Mother Goose, and even Dracula have been texts with notes added to explain everything from etymology of certain terms used in the text to historical context. If I buy an annotated version of a novel, I expect to gain the benefit of someone's else's in-depth research.

[I will get to the question in a second; I'm warming up here.]

In the last couple of weeks, I've come across a usage of annotation that doesn't fit my own understanding of the term--and, yes, I've checked Webster's online and still don't like how the term was used. Here goes:

Students were asked to copy out bibliographical information about a favorite novel, and then they were asked to write a 3-sentence 'summary' of the novel to go on a bibliographical card. The librarians called the '3-sentence summary' on the card itself an annotation--and that's what I don't see as an annotation at all.

Would you use 'summary' and 'annotation' as synonyms here? I wouldn't--and I balk at using the term 'annotation'--however, I stand to be corrected if necessary.

Well, I'm just a paraprofessional libraroid, but I can tell you that the word "annotation" isn't official jargon for anything in a cataloging record. However, a brief summary is part of an annotated bibliography, and a library catalog can certainly be considered a bibliography. It seems appropriate to me for the context.

Thanks, birdseed and wow. That pretty much explains the problem--and solution: terms of art.

Birdseed's use of the phrase 'annotated bibliography' sent me to onelook.com--and that sent me to a librarians' lexicon. Here's the definition:

"In a more general sense, any brief explanatory or descriptive comment added to a document, text, catalog entry, etc. In a critical annotation, the commentary is evaluative. Also refers to the process of annotating a document or an entry in a bibliography or catalog."

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